Ever since I first played Contra, I’ve loved playing games cooperatively with others. Most recently, I played Halo 2’s cooperative version and really enjoyed it. What are some of the best cooperative games available? (And don’t think that because it’s newer means it’s better ;))
Additionally, are there any cooperative games for larger groups of people, i.e. more than two? I just recently re-installed my old copy of X-Wing Alliance, and was re-disappointed that the multi-player versions were skirmishes only… I’d really like to work together with a group of my friends towards advancing a plotline.
I’m looking forward to seeing how co-op play works out for Doom 3 on Xbox, which is just a week or so away from release. My brother-in-law and I had loads of fun playing through Halo and Halo 2, but there didn’t end up being many other co-op console games that looked very good once we finished them.
Doom 3 singleplayer on PC was nice, dumb enough fun, but I’ve heard they’re modifying the game for the Xbox. If they err on the side of more pitch-black shotgun fests and less standing around reading dead peoples’ e-mail, it could be a pretty sweet game. With co-op play, one person can hold the flashlight, and one person can shoot zombies.
I liked Champions of Norath for PS2, which is the new kind of action based RPG, I don’t play many video games, but this was so fun to play with friends!! You are working together when sloving the levels and fighting all the creatures, then you get the solo time and think about how you want to level your character (which could include giving up personal stuff to get abilities to help the whole group)
and like Battlefield 1942, and what is it?? call of duty?
For the PC the best co-op experience is Ghost Recon.
It’s an older game, so it should run on anyone’s system. You can get the game plus both expansion packs for around $20 (you might have to look in the used games section). Since the game’s been around for a while there are about a million mods/maps/missions available for download.
It’s a first-person shooter, but nothing like Halo or Doom. You have to be more deliberate, and teamwork actually pays off.
Another bonus: as an older game, you can play the game and act as a server at the same time (provided you have broadband). I’ve hosted up to five other players at the same time over a DSL connection.
Sticking to consoles for the most part, when I play two player games my friend and I really enjoy the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors series (and the fifth one will be out Thursday!). You’re dropped onto a battlefield in the Three Kingdoms period of China or the Warring States period of Japan and chop up hundreds of guys to change the outcome of history (or enforce it depending on which character you have).
For four player games we general play RPG’s more. We just finished Champions of Norath 2 (it was fun, but the game was the buggiest console game I’ve played in a long time) and the best one I’ve recently played was X-Men Legends (though that game had several chunks that had a reduced number of players; I hope that with the inevitable sequel that they keep it four player the whole way through).
Games to avoid include the Hunter: The Reckonning series (bad controls, easy to die, unbalanced characters, and easy to accidently force the game into a nearly unwinnable state) and the Dungeons and Dragons Heroes game (dull environments and combat with a surprisingly shallow character development system and the shopping system resulted in roughly hour breaks in game play as everyone took care of their inventories).
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicals. It was a craptacular game in single player, utterly unplayable, but get three or four peopel palying (even two wasn’t enough) and it suddenly becames great. Having to make sure one guy always can heal, another can do good melee damage, another with range spells, it was realyl a nice syngery that could be had. I think the reason it didn’t do so well was that only people who already owned both a GBA and a gamecube AND had friends who had GBA’s bought it. Of course, since I went to college at a nerd school, this was eay enough to find.
Sigh, and after talking up Doom 3, I went and did some more research only to discover that it won’t support splitscreen co-op multiplay – only system link and xbox live. Lame.
The new Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory cooperative mode looks to be the best ever. In it, you and your fellow spy can interact with each other to accomplish missions. You can use your teammate to boost you to a ledge, and he can then climb over you to get up the ledge. There is a human torpedo move that you can perform too. I can’t wait, since it comes out this week.
If age isn’t a factor, I’ll submit the original Doom. I finished the entire thing in a cooperative game with a coworker at the computer lab in college. (After closing the lab, we would have the place to ourselves and would play for hours.) He and I still talk about how much fun that was ten years later. I wish the industry would focus on coop play more.
I’d also submit the Unreal Tournament Assault game, which felt similar, even though there was a competing team.
I would like to try some of these games, especially the Splinter Cell line, but one thing I’d really like is a FPS/3PS or flight game that’s more than two players. There’s about five of us who get together for a “Guys’ Day”, playing video games of all sorts… and since we all have laptops now, the ol’ LAN party (now wireless) is a lot easier to work with.
I kind of have this vague ROTJ image in my head of an enemy base that’s protected by a shield. One or two of the players would sneak in FPS/3PS style to disable it while the other three are flying, holding of enemies from their base until they get the signal that the shield’s down. That, however, is a lot to ask for
Games for the PS2 or the XBox are also possible, but until someone gets a 2nd XBox, there’s always going to be one left out.
Have you tried any of the “squad combat” games like Tribes 2, Battlefield 1942, UT 2004 or Star Wars Battlefront? While you’re not advancing any kind of storyline in those games, they’re designed for fun battles with a dozen or so players at a time, which sounds like what you’re looking for.
Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance 1 and 2 for consoles were both pretty fun, although I think 1 was a little better. These are not to be confused with the regular Baldur’s Gate games for PCs; the console games are much more hack-n-slash.
